


Engaging Personalities

by Karak323



Series: The Mustang Chronicles [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, Ghosts, early seasons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 09:08:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16037357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karak323/pseuds/Karak323
Summary: Sam and Dean meet up with Kara and Madalyn once again and find themselves in a debacle involving cheeseburgers, champagne, a dark motel room, gravediggers, and ghostly possession.





	Engaging Personalities

“It’s ruined.” Madalyn stood at the sink and her cousin glanced over her shoulder.

 

“Yeah, Wendigo blood’s a bitch,” a redheaded Kara remarked and continued brushing her teeth.

 

Madalyn sighed and tossed her tank top in the trash. She walked over and opened the curtains, flooding the motel room with sunlight.

 

“Woah! Two MDK’s and a whole fleet of demolition men outside in the parking lot!”

 

Kara joined her at the window and both stood wide-eyed as two covered gurneys were loaded into an ambulance and police tape was roped around one of the other rooms.

 

“Think it’s worth a look?” Kara asked but Madalyn was already at the door.

 

\---

 

A few minutes later Madalyn was trying to peek into the crime scene while Kara was talking to a young police officer. Madalyn was just about to try and sneak past the tape and get a closer look when Kara walked up.

 

“It’s about time! What did you get, his phone number?” Madalyn asked sarcastically.

 

“His business card, but I also found out who the ‘Murder Death Kills’ were."

 

Madalyn rolled her eyes. “Unbelievable. You and your aura thing.”

 

“I’m just good at flirting,” Kara smiled, “You should try it sometime.”

 

“Too bad I’m only attractive to ghosts,” Madalyn grumbled.

 

Kara shook her head and they went back inside.

 

\---

 

“Ok, so tell me the stats.” Madalyn flopped down on the bed a little while later, eating an apple.

 

“Charles Marlow and Cynthia Carson were engaged to be married and – where are you going?”

 

Kara stopped to stare as her cousin suddenly got up and went to the door. Madalyn swung it open just as someone was about to knock. The guy took a startled step back, bumping into his brother.

 

“Maddie?” Kara came to the doorway and was surprised to see Sam and Dean standing on the other side of the threshold.

 

“Fancy meeting you two here! Come in,” Madalyn invited.

 

“Uh, thanks. How did you know we were out here?” Sam asked warily.

 

“I have good hearing. How did you know we were here?” Madalyn asked back.

 

“We came to investigate a Wendigo and saw your car. The lady at the desk told us which room you guys were in,” Sam explained.

 

“Well, it’s too late for the Wendigo but maybe you guys can help us find out what happened to the two stiffs they just carted out of here,” Kara suggested.

 

“Yeah, we saw the cop cars and thought it was related to the Wendigo – do you mean you killed it already?” Dean asked, cutting himself off.

 

“Duh,” Madalyn rolled her eyes and he gave her a hurt look.

 

“So what’s going on?” Sam turned to Kara.

 

“Two love birds, Charles and Cynthia–” she began.

 

“Wait! As in ‘Chuck and Cindy’?” Madalyn exclaimed.

 

“Oh, yeah!” Kara laughed.

 

“ ‘I am now stealing Chuck and Cindy’s wedding beer,’ ” Madalyn quoted.

 

“Uh, what?” Dean asked, bewildered.

 

“Nothing, it’s from a movie,” Kara explained, “Anyway, Charles and Cynthia were engaged but their parents had forbidden the union. The room was rented for one in Charles’ name but they were both found this morning by the maid and were apparently poisoned.”

 

“Why were their parents against them getting married?” Sam asked.

 

“Their families are well known rivals at the country club.” Kara stole a bite of her cousin’s apple. “They own competing florist shops in town.”

 

“So someone murdered these two over flowers?” Madalyn said incredulously.

 

“Seems so.”

 

“But you said it looks like they were poisoned, so there’s nothing supernatural going on,” Sam concluded.

 

“No, something’s wrong,” Madalyn shook her head. “It was really cold in that room.”

 

“You went inside?” Dean asked.

 

“No, I could tell when I was standing by the door.”

 

“You don’t think it’s just a regular murder because the room felt cold to you from outside?” Dean looked at her like she was nuts.

 

“Yes,” she affirmed.

 

“But that doesn’t make any sense!”

 

“If Maddie thinks something’s off, then it is,” Kara said plainly.

 

Just then a high-pitched scream sounded from the crime scene. The four rushed outside as a female investigator came running out of the room. A cop hurried over to her and she ranted loudly as he tried to calm her down.

 

“Something’s in there!” she insisted, “The doors were opening and closing and everything was moving! Their ghosts have come back!”

 

The hunters all exchanged glances and they trouped back inside.

 

“Ok, I guess Madalyn’s right. Any theories?” Sam asked.

 

“The ghosts of the couple have come back and they probably want revenge on whoever killed them,” Dean shrugged.

 

“Let’s try to get inside and see if this can be solved with a simple exorcism,” Kara suggested.

 

\---

 

“I can’t reach the ground yet, just a little farther!” Madalyn called to Dean as he slowly lowered her through the high bathroom window of the other hotel room by her ankles.

 

The window was at the back of the building and Sam was nervously looking on as Kara kept watch.

 

Someone from the kitchen staff emerged from a door a few feet away to throw out the trash and Dean quickly let go of Madalyn, sending her crashing into the bathtub headfirst.

 

When the person went back inside Dean hoisted himself through the window while Madalyn was nursing her bruises.

 

As Sam gave Kara a leg up they heard the two inside bickering back and forth.

 

“You didn’t have to punch me!” Dean complained in a hushed but harsh voice.

 

“You let go!” Madalyn said in a loud whisper.

 

“Someone was coming, what else was I supposed to do? It’s not my fault you’re so short!”

 

Finally all four were inside and they peeked around the door to see if the coast was clear.

 

It was.

 

A half empty bottle of champagne in a bucket of water and two glasses were sitting next to evidence markers on the desk.

 

Dean went to pick up one of the glasses but Madalyn grabbed his hand away, silently admonishing him.

 

They all wandered around the room but there wasn’t much to see. They were headed back to the bathroom when the closet door swung forwards on its hinge. Drawers began to open and close by themselves and the sheets were flung off the bed.

 

All the activity was creating a lot of noise and soon the deputy on duty came to investigate. The knob of the front door was being turned as the four intruders rushed back into the tub and hopped back out the window.

 

“Well now we know what freaked the other lady out,” Kara said as she walked with the others back to her own room.

 

“Looks like a pair of run-a-the-mill ghosts who can’t move on to the afterlife.” Dean waited as Kara found her key and opened the door.

 

“I… I think there was only one spirit in there,” Madalyn mused.

 

“It almost seemed like it was looking for something, actually,” said Sam.

 

“Looking for what?” asked Kara.

 

“I don’t know. Maybe the ghost was there all along and the deaths just stirred it up a bit.”

 

“Well whatever’s going on, I think it can wait. Let’s go grab dinner, I’m starving!” Dean voiced.

 

The other three rolled their eyes but agreed nonetheless.

 

\---

 

At the diner the waitress came over to the four seated in a booth.

 

“Three cheese burgers and a salad!” she announced and handed everything out, Sam getting the salad.

 

Madalyn and Kara prepped and ate their meals in near perfect synchronization, even pausing to sip their sodas at the same time. Sam and Dean stared.

 

“What?” the girls asked as one.

 

“Do you two always do that?” Sam asked them.

 

The girls looked at each other and noticed how they were positioned like mirror images of themselves.

 

“Yeah,” they shrugged and continued eating.

 

“We’ve spent way too much time with each other,” Kara explained.

 

“Remember the time when – ?” Madalyn began.

 

“Oh, yeah! When we – !”

 

“And then that guy – !”

 

They burst out laughing.

 

“Did you two just have a conversation without actually saying anything?” asked a fearful Dean.

 

“Oh that’s nothing,” said Kara.

 

“We once spent nearly and entire day without speaking,” said Madalyn.

 

“Just because we knew what the other was thinking,”

 

“Or we did the same thing anyway.”

 

“Wow, you guys are freaks. Sammy and I spend a lot of time together too but you don’t see us finishing each other sentences like that.” He shook his head and bit into his burger. “And I mean, he has his weird premonition thing but you two are just crazy.”

 

“What weird premonition thing?” Madalyn asked suspiciously.

 

“Uh, nothing,” he shrugged after Sam kicked him under the table.

 

“No. What is it?” Kara demanded.

 

“Nothing,” Sam insisted but the cousins gave him skeptical looks.

 

“He has dreams about people dying and then they come true,” Dean admitted.

 

“Dean!” Sam couldn’t believe his brother’s audacity.

 

Madalyn and Kara exchanged wary glances.

 

Ø

 

“So how did it end up as being just the two of us again?” Dean questioned the next day as he looked at Madalyn in the passenger’s seat of the Impala.

 

“Just good fortune I guess,” she answered with an undertone of sarcasm.

 

He scoffed.

 

“Well, it seems I’m Kara’s ‘Wingman’.”

 

“Her what?”

 

“You know, like when someone wants to hook up with a hot someone else but that hot someone has a not-so-hot friend? In such a case the first someone’s friend is obligated to take the not-so-hot one and entertain them for a while,” Madalyn explained.

 

“I’ll have you know that I’m the one that gets all the ladies,” Dean retorted.

 

“But you apparently can’t keep them.”

 

Dean started.

 

“I mean, sure, you look fine enough but your charm? I find it a bit lacking.”

 

“Well I could say the same about you!” the Impala pulled up to a building.

 

“So you think I’m pretty?”

 

“Wha-!?”

 

“Oh look, we’re here!” Madalyn jumped out of the car and Dean followed, unsure of what had just happened.

 

When they entered the police station the officer on duty looked up, almost startled, as if he had never seen strangers before.

 

“Can I help you?” he asked uncertainly.

 

“I’m Madalyn,” she began in a low voice, “this is my brother Dean. I was a friend of Cindy’s at school and I just found out –” she said with tears in her eyes.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s such a terrible shame isn’t it?” the officer nodded solemnly. “They were such good kids too, and so in love.”

 

“I just don’t understand how something like this could have happened,” she shook her head.

 

“They’re saying a double suicide. A whole bottle of sleeping pills had been crushed into the champagne.”

 

“Suicide?” Madalyn gasped and grabbed Dean’s arm as he looked at her oddly.

 

“Oh, hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to spring it on you like that. Were you two real close?” the cop asked gently.

 

“We had a few classes together and lived in the same hall. We weren’t attached at the hip or anything but we got to know each other pretty well.” Madalyn’s voice was heavy and choked. “I just can’t believe she would kill herself like that!”

 

“I know, no one saw it coming but their parents forbid them to ever see each other. Threatened to cut them off from their trust funds, repossess all their stuff, and black list them from ever getting jobs. I guess they couldn’t handle it.” He shook his head sadly.

 

“Are you sure someone else couldn’t have slipped them the sleeping pills?” Dean spoke up.

 

“What are you suggesting?” The officer looked appalled.

 

“An ex-boyfriend or girl-friend maybe, someone jealous of the relationship? Or even someone who just really didn’t want them married?” suggested Dean.

 

“What? Foul play? I can’t imagine anyone wanting to kill two nice young people like them!”

 

“It just so shocking that they would go and do that to themselves.” Madalyn gave Dean’s arm a good squeeze to shut him up.

 

“People do crazy things when they’re in love,” the officer shook his head again.

 

“How are the families taking all of this?” she asked.

 

“Pretty hard. They blame each other and still aren’t speaking. Even at the double funeral this morning they didn’t say a word.”

 

“They were buried that fast?” Dean asked.

 

“Father Laurence insisted. He has a lot of influence in this town and had openly approved of the marriage. He thought it would bring the two families together. He got the couple buried next to each other too! You know, the parents still might be at the church. Do you want the address?”

 

“Please,” Madalyn nodded.

 

\---

 

“What the hell was that?” Dean asked as they walked back out into the parking lot.

 

“What?” Madalyn went around to the passenger’s side.

 

“The whole waterworks thing! Where did that come from?”

 

She shrugged, “I took a few acting classes back in high school.”

 

Ø

 

“Ok, got it. Bye.” Kara hung up her phone and finished scribbling down the address Madalyn had given her. Soon she and Sam were off.

 

When the Mustang pulled up to the church there was a lot of commotion going on. Police tape was put up across the front door and a crowd of people in black had gathered.

 

“Excuse me?” Sam tapped a man on the shoulder. “What happened here?”

 

“There’s been a robbery!” the man answered in disbelief. “Someone broke into the church while everyone was at the cemetery!”

 

Kara tugged on Sam’s jacket and led him over to the side of the church, pointing to a small door. “Let’s go in.”

 

They crept down a narrow hallway and into a study. Papers had been thrown everywhere and books were scattered across the floor.

 

“Take a look at this,” Kara whispered, holding up one of the papers. Charles and Cynthia was scribbled in red ink over and over.

 

Sam picked up more papers. They were all the same. He made his way over to the desk and picked up the page that lay front and center.

 

“ ‘You said it would all be ok’ ” Kara read. “What does that mean?”

 

“I don’t know,” Sam muttered.

 

Just then they heard voices from down the hall. They rushed out of the study but it was too late, two people were about to turn the corner.

 

Kara opened a door and stuffed Sam inside. She followed and quickly closed the door behind her. They were in a particularly small broom closet with barely enough room for the both of them.

 

“Is anything missing, Father?” someone asked as he walked down the hall.

 

“No,” the other responded in an elderly sounding voice. “The engagement ring is still where I left it. I think that’s what the intruder was after.”

 

“Who knew it was there?” asked the first person.

 

“Just Misters and Mistresses Marlow and Carson. I was holding it for safe keeping until it was decided whose family it should go to.”

 

The two entered the study and shut the door, muffling their voices.

 

“Kara.” Sam said after a few moments.

 

“What?”

 

“I think it’s safe to leave now.”

 

“Oh, I guess you’re right,” she answered, somewhat reluctantly.

 

Ø

 

“I do not.”

 

“You do too.”

 

“Do not!”

 

“Do too!”

 

Kara and Sam walked into the boys’ hotel room to hear Madalyn and Dean bickering once again.

 

“Now what are you guys fighting about?” Kara flopped down next to Madalyn seated on the bed.

 

“Dean lacks tact,” her cousin answered.

 

“I do not!” he retorted.

 

“You should have seen him at the station.” Madalyn rolled her eyes.

 

“Well maybe I would have been a little more prepared if you had filled me in on the plan, Sis.”

 

“Ok, stop. Listen to what Kara and I found out at the church,” Sam mediated.

 

\---

 

“Did their ghosts really come back then? Or was it just some elaborate hoax to try and steal the ring?” Dean asked after Sam and Kara relayed their findings from the church.

 

“And what does ‘You said it would all be ok’ mean?” Kara furrowed her brow in thought.

 

“The cop at the station said that Father Laurence supported their decision to get married but their parents still weren’t allowing it. They threatened to cut them off from their trust funds," Madalyn reported to them with a pointed look at her cousin.

 

“I think Charles and Cynthia did come back. Something went wrong and the dead couple now blame the priest,” Kara theorized.

 

“Sounds about right. But what went wrong? What was the priest planning?” Sam asked.

 

“Does it really matter? Let’s just torch the bodies and get it over with.” His brother was leaning against the table with his arms crossed and was looking rather bored.

 

“Dean, we don’t even know what’s going on!”

 

“Well it can’t hurt, can it?”

 

“He has a point,” Kara confessed.

 

“You want to go dig up the bodies? Burn first, ask questions later?” Sam frowned.

 

“I don’t dig - that’s Maddie’s job. She can go with Dean and we can both go see what we can find out about our dear Father. See what he was planning and if he has any skeletons in his closet,” suggested Kara.

 

Both Dean and Madalyn began to protest but they didn’t get very far.

 

Ø

 

“So you never told us how you two got into hunting!” Dean shouted from his hole in the cemetery.

 

“We actually – got into it – separately!” Madalyn said between shovels of dirt. “We’ve been good friends all our lives – but we never knew we were both hunters until – we bumped into each other on the same job!”

 

\---

 

“– until we beat the crap out of each other on the same job,” Kara told Sam as they looked through the drawers of microfilm in the library. He looked up and raised his eyebrows. “We didn’t recognize each other at first,” Kara explained in a whisper.

 

\---

 

“So when did you first find out about all this stuff?” Dean asked Madalyn.

 

“I was in a hotel –”

 

\---

 

“I was at college,” Kara told Sam as she scanned through old newspaper articles. “My roommate was coming home late one night from a frat party. Her call woke me up. She had been drinking so I couldn’t understand her at first when she was talking…”

 

\---

 

“Kara! Someone … help! I … campus … and –” the girl’s voice was choppy with bad reception but Kara could tell her roommate was scared.

 

Kara sat up in bed, now wide-awake. "Caroline, I can’t here you, what are you saying?”

 

“Someone’s chasing me!” Caroline sobbed. Kara could hear the cell phone shaking as Caroline ran. “I … library … !”

 

“I’m coming!” Kara exclaimed as she threw on a jacket and shoes. She hung up and quickly called campus security.

 

“Hello, Security Desk. May I help you?” a tired voice asked.

 

“My roommate’s being attacked! I think she’s somewhere near the library!” Kara shouted as she ran down the stairs of her dorm and out into the chilly April night.

 

When she got to the library, however, Caroline was nowhere in sight. Suddenly an eerie scream rose from above the trees in the woods off to the left and Kara darted towards it. She got to a rocky clearing where a figure was bent over Caroline's limp body.

 

“Get away from her!” Kara yelled, picking up a large, and very pointy stick from the ground. The figure turned and Kara’s blood went cold.

 

It wasn’t human.

 

The creature had the general shape of a man – two legs, two arms, a torso – but attached to the neck was the shaggy head of a wolf. It gave a low growl, clutching something in its mouth.

 

Kara gagged as she realized that the ‘something’ was Caroline's right arm.

 

The creature withdrew the bloody appendage from between his fangs with a sickening crunch of bone and made its way to Kara. She dropped to her knees and retched loudly.

 

She looked up.

 

The creature’s legs resembled the hindquarters of a dog, covered in matted grey fur. He was closing in when Kara jumped up and rammed the stick through the creature’s gut. It whined in surprise and grabbed for Kara with its half human hands. She twisted away but its claws connected with her flesh and tore a gash in her back. She grabbed the stick, still lodged in the wolf man, and backed him up. The monster tripped and fell, pulling Kara down with it. They hit the ground, the creature’s neck landing on a sharp and jagged rock. The head detached cleanly from the body.

 

Kara was stunned. She lay in the dirt, watching as the head rolled away and regained its human form. The rest of the body also shrank back into its more natural state.

 

\---

 

“I was arrested of course.” Kara and Sam had left the library and she was driving them back to the motel.

 

All Sam could think to say was, “Wow.”

 

Ø

 

“Wow. This dirt is really packed in,” Dean grunted as he forced his shovel through the earth. “So, a hotel huh? And just what were you doing there?”

 

Madalyn rolled her eyes, but he couldn’t see. “I was home from school visiting my parents. They live in a small town so it was just me at the hotel. I would have stayed at their house but they were remodeling.” A shovel of dirt was thrust out of Madalyn’s hole.

 

\---

 

“Yeah Mom, I got to the place just fine – I still remember how to drive around this town, you know… I love you too… Goodnight.” Madalyn hung up and gazed around the motel room. Her stomach growled.

 

Grabbing some change she wandered out into the hall in search of a vending machine. She was hitting the side of the machine trying to coax the bag of peanut M&Ms out when someone came around the corner with a 'Manager' tag pinned to his shirt.

 

“It does that sometimes.” The guy was tall and blonde with bright blue eyes, and his smile was gorgeous. “You just have to find its sweet spot.” He took his fist and hit the machine once towards the back, prompting the bag of M&Ms to finally fall.

 

“Thanks,” Madalyn smiled, opening the bag and proceeding to remove only the blue chocolates. “Would you like the rest?” she offered when she was done. The manager raised an amused eyebrow and she shrugged. “Call me weird, but I only eat the blue ones.”

 

“Well I know some people only eat the brown ones because they’re more natural but why just the blue?” he took the bag from her and popped a few into his mouth.

 

“Actually, the brown ones are probably the least natural.”

 

“But chocolate’s already brown.”

 

“Yes, but M&Ms are candy coated and brown is a mix of a lot of colors while blue is primary and made of only one.”

 

“Then why don’t you eat the red or the yellow?” the guy leaned against the vending machine and folded his arms, a crooked smile on his face.

 

“Yellow tastes funny and the red – I don’t know, I just don’t eat them.”

 

He extended his hand. “Justin,” he introduced himself.

 

“Madalyn,” she said, shaking his hand. “Well, it’s late. I better get some sleep.”

 

“Yeah, I was thinking about doing the same. I don’t think anyone else will be checking in tonight. I’ll be in room 109 if you need anything.”

 

Back in her room Madalyn watched TV for a while before finally drifting off to sleep. An infomercial advertising a combination food processor and grill was on when she woke up with a weird feeling - like someone was watching her. She rolled over and then screamed.

 

A pale man was lying next to her.

 

Madalyn jumped out of the bed and backed up against the window. The pale man was dressed in an old-fashioned suit and bow tie and politely got up and walked away through the wall. Pounding sounded at the door and she screamed again.

 

“Madalyn! Madalyn open up! It’s Justin! Let me in!”

 

Trembling, she bolted for the door and swung it open. Justin was standing in the hall in his boxers with a panicked look on his face. He rushed into the room and looked around.

 

“What happened!?”

 

Ø

 

“So what happened?” Sam and Kara were continuing their research back at the motel.

 

“I was ranting about a werewolf. They put me in a holding cell and brought me a shrink.” There was a slight bitterness in Kara’s voice. “They thought I killed my roommate and her boyfriend out of jealousy and went crazy with guilt.”

 

\---

 

“I told you! I don’t know what is was, but it wasn’t him! It killed her. Not me! I didn’t kill anyone!”

 

“The man killed your roommate and then chopped off his own head?” A stern woman with dark red lipstick and cigarette wrinkles was sitting across the table from Kara in an interrogation room. She kept asking the same questions while scribbling in a notepad.

 

“He didn’t kill himself. It was an accident. And he wasn’t human! He – he looked like a wolf!” Kara cried desperately. “A werewolf!”

 

“But werewolves aren’t real, dear. Now, you must have been imagining things. Or, maybe you created this story because you are afraid to tell us what really happened.”

 

“I didn’t kill Caroline!”

 

“But you killed her boyfriend.”

 

“No! It wasn’t him! The creature was coming after me so I stopped it - but I’m not a murderer!”

 

The psychologist walked out to the room where the police captain and arresting officers were waiting.

 

“Hmm. It’s all very interesting. I can’t tell if she has created this story to escape responsibility for her actions, or if the boy attacked both girls and she fought back and is now traumatized because of what resulted.”

 

“Excuse me. Captain?” a young man stood in the doorway. “The coroner thought you might what to see this.” He handed over a thick manila folder.

 

Inside was a photo of a girl’s arm, torn from the torso and with deep gouges around the elbow in an arrangement that looked suspiciously like an animal bite.

 

Ø

 

“So the ghost just stretched out next to you? Didn’t try anything funny - just got up and walked away?” Dean’s shovel hit a rock and he worked to uncover it.

 

“Through the wall, yeah.”

 

“How did you know you weren’t dreaming?”

 

\---

 

“Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” Justin and Madalyn were seated at the table in her room. All the lights were turned on.

 

“I’m sure. My dreams have always been vivid but this was real,” she said firmly.

 

“Well, you said the TV was on. Was your mind maybe playing tricks on you?”

 

“No!” she stood up abruptly and went to the open door. “Don’t bother trying to console me if you don’t even believe me,” she said, clenching her jaw.

 

“I believe you saw something, I’m just trying to find a reasonable explanation.” His voice was apologetic as he stood up.

 

Her expression relaxed a little. “I’m sorry, I’m just – I just got really freaked out.” Madalyn sighed heavily. “You’re right, it probably was just my mind playing tricks. I should go back to sleep.”

 

Justin hung back at the doorway. “I’m right down the hall if you need anything.” He looked like he wanted to say more but just smiled stiffly and left.

 

Madalyn crawled back under the covers after shutting off the TV and all the lights except the ones in the bathroom and next to the bed. She took a deep breath and then switched off the lamp on the nightstand too.

 

She awoke a few hours later. She lifted her head to check the clock – 3:21 am – and flopped back down. “This is stupid…” she muttered and turned on her side.

 

Justin woke up to Madalyn pounding on his door. When he opened it she burst in and started pacing the room.

 

“He was just sitting there staring at me!” she ranted. “He was just sitting there smoking a pipe like it wasn’t weird or anything!”

 

“Whoa, calm down!” Justin grabbed her by the arms and held her still. “Who are you talking about?”

 

“The ghost! He came back! You know, I’ve always had these weird feelings, like someone was watching me. Or I’ll catch glimpses or something out of the corner of my eye. But this guy, I could see clearly. He’s real! Or – well, I’m really seeing him anyway…” she paused to take a breath.

 

“You saw him again?” Justin asked in a weird voice.

 

“Yeah! And he walked out through the wall again too! And don’t say I was dreaming!”

 

“I wasn’t going to. Look, stay here. I’ll be right back.” He quickly put on his jeans, grabbed a bag from his end table, and walked out into the hall.

 

“What are you doing?” Madalyn followed him back to her room.

 

“Just get your stuff and wait for me in the other room,” Justin ordered. She obeyed with a suspicious look.

 

Back in room 109 Madalyn decided to put on some more decent clothing and was pulling on her jeans when she heard Justin shouting. She ran to him.

 

Justin was shouting in a foreign language, possibly Latin, and the ghost was holding him up in the air. Little white crystals were in a broken circle around them.

 

Madalyn looked desperately around the room for a weapon before she noticed that Justin’s fingers were scratching at a sawed-off shotgun just out of his reach. She quickly retrieved the gun and took a shot at the attacker who disappeared in a puff of smoke.

 

Justin sat up and struggled to his feet.

 

“Did I kill him?” Madalyn asked shakily.

 

“No, rock salt only repels them. He’ll be back.”

 

“It’s really real?” she said in a daze. “And you knew it was real?” she exclaimed. “You knew and you tried making me believe I was seeing things?!”

 

“I’m sorry. I thought I was protecting you.” His eyes were sad and guilty.

 

“You thought that you were protecting me? By not telling me I was in danger?”

 

“No, by not telling you about all the things that are in the dark.” He took the gun from her and reloaded it.

 

“How poetic. It still could have killed me.”

 

“I don’t think it would have.”

 

“It was killing you!”

 

“That’s because I was trying to exorcise it. It has some unfinished business here that it can’t let go of and so it can’t move on.”

 

\---

 

“Ok, I’m done,” Madalyn called to Dean over the huge pile of dirt sitting next to the grave she stood in.

 

“But that’s not the end, is it?” he asked.

 

“I meant I’m done digging.”

 

“Giving up so soon?” Dean taunted.

 

“No, I mean I’ve reached the coffin and this is going to be a fresh one so you can be the one to open it.”

 

“What?” he asked in disbelief.

 

“I said, I’m not going to open this!” she shouted.

 

“No, I heard you, I just – well, I’m not done yet so come over here and finish the story.”

 

“I can’t,” Madalyn stated plainly.

 

“What, is the rest a little NC-17?” he joked.

 

“No, I mean I can’t get out of the hole. When they said six feet under they meant it - I’m not tall enough to climb up the edge.”

 

Dean burst into a fit of laughter.

 

Ø

 

“Don’t laugh at me!” Kara hit Sam across the arm from the driver’s seat.

 

“I’m not!” he said, catching his breath.

 

“You liar! You’re laughing at me!”

 

“I just think it’s funny you were put in a straight jacket.”

 

“Yeah, ha ha funny,” she said flatly, and then cracked a smile. “So where is this cemetery anyway?”

 

“We still have quite a ways to go.” Sam was sitting in the passenger’s seat studying a map with a flashlight. “They should be done digging by now. They said they were almost done when I called.” He studied Kara’s profile from out of the corner of his eye. “So how did you prove you were innocent?” he asked after a while.

 

“The autopsies were inconclusive. They said the force it would have taken for me to rip off her arm… I just couldn’t have done it. And they couldn’t explain the bite marks either.”

 

“So they believed your story?”

 

“No, of course not. They said that maybe a wild animal attacked Caroline and the guy was just trying to save her but I thought he was the one attacking her so I tried to stop him. They ruled his death an accident and the judge ordered that I go to therapy twice a week.

 

“But you knew what you saw.”

 

“Yeah. I knew what I saw.”

 

\---

 

Kara stood in her dorm packing boxes up with all her stuff. She picked up a letter from the desk and glanced at its contents. She muttered something and tossed the paper in the trash. She finished taping up all the boxes for the move the next day and climbed into bed at around two in the morning. She was just drifting off to sleep when she heard a shriek from outside her window. She ran to look outside and saw a girl running for her life from what looked like a large shaggy dog.

 

A werewolf.

 

Kara threw on her shoes and raced down the stairs just like she had not a month before. By the time she got outside the two figures were nowhere in sight but then another scream was let loose into the dark. She raced for the same clearing where she had found her roommate, and this time she wasn’t too late.

 

“Get away from her!” Kara shouted at the creature and it turned. It barked and snapped its teeth at her and she slowly backed up, realizing she didn’t have a plan.

 

“Here!” The other girl frantically tossed something at Kara from where she had fallen. It was a can of pepper spray.

 

The girl’s shout had distracted the werewolf and when it turned its attention back to Kara she hit him full force in the eyes with the burning liquid. It let out a sharp howl and stumbled blindly off into the forest.

 

“Are you ok?” Kara asked, helping the girl to her feet.

 

“What was that thing?” she shuddered.

 

“I don’t know, but I’m going to kill it before it hurts anyone else.”

 

\---

 

Sam and Kara stepped out of the car parked near the entrance to the cemetery.

 

“There was a whole pack hiding out in the woods. Werewolves change form every night the moon is out but they only feed on human flesh when it’s full.

 

“You went after the whole pack alone?” Sam blinked.

 

“Yeah. Armed only with pepper spray and another pointed stick. But I wasn’t alone for long. Another hunter had been tracking the pack for almost a year. The pack had always moved on to a different location quickly after feeding, but this time, for some reason they had stayed on campus. The hunter and I took out every last one. When we were done she showed and told me all I needed to know to start hunting on my own.”

 

“I’m sorry you had to go through all that.” Sam’s voice was soft and low.

 

“Yeah, but that’s why we do it right? So that others don’t have to go through what we did.”

 

“I guess so.”

 

Ø

 

“So you’re telling me that Santa Claus isn’t real, but Bigfoot is?” Madalyn asked stiffly.

 

“Pretty much.” Justin was cleaning up the salt he had spread around the room.

 

“Well, now what?”

 

“I don’t think he’ll come back tonight but you probably don’t feel like sleeping anymore, right? Did you want to go grab something to eat at the diner next door?”

 

“Sure, but, I mean what do I do now… like, with my life? Now that I know all this stuff is real.”

 

Justin’s mouth twitched into an odd smile. “You don’t know the half of it.”

 

\---

 

“So he explained everything he did and gave me the name of a contact at my school. My first job was a poltergeist that was letting loose all the frogs from the bio lab. Now can you help me get out of here?” Madalyn stood from her seat on the coffin and dusted herself off.

 

Dean was pulling her up from the hole when Sam and Kara stepped into view.

 

“Good! You’re just in time for the unveiling!” Madalyn leaned against her shovel as Dean hopped into the rectangle she had dug out in front of the grave marked ‘Charles Marlow’.

 

“Ok, let’s burn these bones - uh, bodies. Sammy hand me the salt.”

 

Sam gave his brother the can of salt and Kara went to get the gasoline. When they were done Sam got in the Impala with Dean and Madalyn got in the Mustang with Kara.

 

\---

 

“So uh, you gettin’ some yet Sammy?” Dean asked as they drove back to the motel.

 

“What!? Dean, do you even have an upstairs brain? And I barely even know her!”

 

“So? I’m just asking, man. I mean you keep ditching me for Kara and sticking me with the other one. I’d just like to think that at least one of us is getting something out of it.”

 

“Are you complaining about spending so much time with Madalyn?”

 

“Yeah, man. She’s driving me nuts!”

 

“Well I think she’s good for you,” Sam smiled mischievously.

 

“You just like to see me suffer, don’t you. Your own brother.”

 

“I think you like her.”

 

“No way. But you still haven’t answered my question. Are you getting some?”

 

“Dude!”

 

“Well she’s obviously interested! I say just go for it.”

 

“I don’t know, Dean.” Sam shook his head and gazed out the window.

 

\---

 

“So have you made your move yet?” Madalyn nudged her cousin as she slid into the passenger’s seat.

 

“No, not yet. I was kinda waiting for him to.”

 

“What? Since when do you wait for the guy to act first? Man, you must really be crushing!”

 

Kara shrugged. They drove in quiet for a while.

 

“So, no skeletons?” Madalyn asked finally.

 

“No skeletons. The good Father’s record is squeaky clean. He probably was really trying to help them out.”

 

“Well, it should all be taken care of now anyway.” Madalyn sighed and slouched down in her seat. She was nodding off when Kara suddenly slammed on the breaks.

 

“Holy sh-!” Kara swerved to avoid hitting a woman in a pale pink nightgown standing in the middle of the motel parking lot. The car skidded and twisted around before finally coming to a stop and when the girls looked back the woman was nowhere in sight.

 

Dean and Sam quickly pulled up and jumped out of the Impala. A few minutes of confusion ensued but once it was determined that no one was actually hurt they all turned around to where the woman had stood.

 

“It was Cynthia,” Madalyn stated gravely.

 

“It looked like her but how can you be sure?” Kara asked.

 

Madalyn bent down and picked something up off the pavement. It was a bottle of sleeping pills.

 

Ø

 

“So Cynthia slipped the sleeping pills into the champagne, and now she’s wandering around outside?” Kara took a seat on the edge of her bed as the other three followed her inside the room.

 

“She must have come to Charles that night. He probably didn’t even know what she was planning to do,” said Sam.

 

“But we torched them! How could she have come back? And is this Charles guy wandering around somewhere too?” Dean sunk down on the other bed.

 

“You found Charles?” Madalyn suddenly perked up and everyone gave her strange looks. “Take me to him!” she demanded.

 

“What are you talking about? We were just at the cemetery.”

 

“What? Where’s Charles? I want to see him!”

 

Sam turned to Kara who had a sudden look of clarification.

 

“Oh, uh oh,” she muttered, “this isn’t the first time this has happened.”

 

“Your cousin’s had a total mental break down before?” Dean was staring at Madalyn, horrified.

 

“No, Madalyn’s fine.” Kara turned to address her cousin’s form.

 

“Now where is it…” Madalyn was mumbling.

 

“Cynthia? Cynthia, what are you doing in Madalyn’s body?” Kara asked and Sam and Dean finally understood.

 

“Who’s Madalyn?” She continued to root around in her pockets. “Oh, here it is!” She held up a diamond ring and slid in on to her finger. “That’s funny, it looks different… I’m looking for Charles, have you seen him?”

 

“Your boyfriend’s dead - you killed him!” Dean explained rather insensitively. She looked bewildered.

 

“Cynthia, you poisoned Charles and yourself the other night,” Sam said with a little more tact than his brother.

 

“What are you talking about? I feel fine. Now you mentioned Charles. I’ve been looking everywhere for him!”

 

Kara leaned over to whisper to the brothers. “Maybe if we take her back to the graves she’ll understand and leave,” she suggested.

 

“I don’t understand how she’s still here,” Sam whispered back.

 

“She must still be attached to something, but what?” They all looked back at Cynthia-in-Madalyn’s-body who was gazing at her left hand stretched out before her.

 

“The ring.”

 

Kara turned back to the boys. “Ok, I’ll bring her to the grave while you two go back to get her ring from the church.”

 

“No.” Sam shook his head, “I don’t want to leave you alone with her. We don’t know what she’s capable of.”

 

“I can handle myself!”

 

“I know, but still. Why don’t the two of us go to the church and Dean can bring her back to the cemetery?”

 

“What! That chick’s crazy even when she’s not possessed! You take her!” Dean protested.

 

“Dean!”

 

“Ok. We’ll rocks-paper-scissors for it. Loser takes the ghost.”

 

Sam rolled his eyes but complied anyway. Dean lost.

 

\---

 

The Impala pulled back into the cemetery as the full moon shone down upon it. Dean led the possessed Madalyn back to the headstones of Charles and Cynthia and she knelt down on the freshly re-dug ground.

 

“No. You’re lying! You don’t want us to be together! You tried making me believe he was dead so I’d call off the wedding! Well I won’t!” she stumbled to her feet. “Charles! Charles where are you!?”

 

“He’s dead, Cynthia.” Dean said firmly. “You killed him. Now you just have to accept that and move on.”

 

“No!” she shouted and darted off into the woods a few feet away.

 

“Crap.” Dean cursed and ran after her.

 

Cynthia had run into a clearing by a sharp drop off. Dean found her and dragged her back from the edge.

 

“Charles, where are you?” she continued to call out.

 

“He’s not here. He’s crossed over and that’s what you have to do!”

 

“I can’t live without him! He can’t be dead!” she broke away from Dean’s grip.

 

“Well he is!”

 

Madalyn’s back stiffened. “Then I must die too.” Cynthia drew one of Madalyn’s daggers and held it to her heart.

 

Dean lunged at her but she darted away.

 

“You can’t keep us apart! I have to be with him!”

 

“But you’re already dead! You’re going to kill Madalyn!” Dean said frantically and chased after her.

 

He grabbed for the knife again but all he caught was one of her braided pigtails. He swung her around and she careened into a tree. The knife dropped to the ground. She scrambled to pick it back up but Dean stepped on her hand. She grabbed his other leg and threw him off balance, sending him crashing to the ground. She tried to stand but he grabbed her waist. She hit him with the back of her hand, drawing fresh blood as the diamond sliced across his cheek. 

 

Kicking Dean back down, Cynthia stood with the dagger back in her hand, pointed once again at her chest.

 

“Stop!” Dean shouted from the ground. “You can’t kill her!”

 

“I need to be with Charles!”

 

Dean whipped his legs around and swept her feet out from under her. The knife went sailing off the edge of the cliff. Cynthia groaned and Dean came up beside her.

 

“Sorry Maddie,” he said before punching her across the jaw and knocking her out.

 

\---

 

Sam and Kara pulled up just as Dean emerged from the trees with Madalyn draped across his arms.

 

“What happened!?” Kara demanded, rushing to her cousin.

 

"Cynthia was trying to kill herself… again. I had to knock her out to get her to stop.” He placed Madalyn on the ground and told Sam to get their father’s journal from the car so they could perform an exorcism.

 

Speaking in Latin, Sam stood over Madalyn with the journal and Cynthia's ring in hand. As he finished, Madalyn regained consciousness and Cynthia’s spirit was released. She lingered for a moment, then disappeared.

 

Madalyn sat up in a coughing fit. Dean lifted her to her feet and she leaned against him as she caught her breath.

 

“That was weirder than last time,” she muttered. “And man you punched me hard!” she said, holding her jaw.

 

“You punched her!?” Kara exclaimed angrily.

 

“I told you! I had to knock her out!” Dean defended and then turned to Madalyn. “Sorry about your hair though.”

 

“You pulled her hair too?!”

 

“I’m fine! I’m fine!” Madalyn held Kara back as she tried to attack Dean.

 

Sam had been cleaning up the materials used for the exorcism and he slammed the trunk shut.

 

“Now what?” he asked.

 

“Well if Madalyn’s done with her whole sixth sense thing I say we all get drunk!” Dean grinned.

 

"No - with the ring." Sam held it up.

 

They all looked around at each other.

 

"Pawn shop?" Dean and Madalyn suggested at the same time.

 

"You guys are horrible." Kara shook her head as she grabbed the ring from Sam's hand and placed it on Cynthia's gravestone.

 

Kara and Sam walked back to the cars and Madalyn turned to Dean.

 

“Thanks for not letting her kill me.”

 

“Are you kidding? Your cousin would’ve made sure I was a dead man if I’d let that happen!”

 

“I know. Thanks anyway.” She paused. “You owe me though – that was my favorite knife!”

 

“Well you wouldn’t have lost it if I hadn’t had to kick the crap out of you.”

 

“You only succeeded in kicking the crap out of me because I was possessed. If it had been a real fight I so would have won!”

 

“I don’t know about that, but that ring of yours did take a good chunk out of my face.”

 

“Oh.” Madalyn looked down at it awkwardly.

 

“He gave it to you didn’t he - that Justin guy?”

 

“Yeah,” she said with a shrug as she wiped the blood off the ring and stuck it back into her pocket.

 

“Hey! Are you two coming or what?” Kara called and they walked off.

 

END


End file.
